Homebuilt vs VelocityMicro

[MJAnderson]

Hey there,

I was looking to build my own system for the first time and had always read that on the lower end it was usually cheaper to buy prebuilt. I read a review of VM and it was generally positive. Their system has pretty much what I would build anyway:

$1,089

Asus A8N SLI MCP
500 watt PS
AMD 64 3800+
Artic Cooling Freezer 64 Heatsink
1024 DDR400 memory (2x512)
256 eVGA NVIDIA 7600GS
160GB Western Digital SATA/150 (WD1600JD)
Lite On 16x DVD/48x CD Combo
Windows XP Home, with original CD

I priced out the components on Newegg and they come to $984 and that's without the case and PS. The MBO wouldn't be my first choice, and I don't know the memory maker, but thoughts on the rest of the components? Am I gaining anything (besides the knowledge of a job well done) by doing it myself?

Thanks in advance.

 

[3Ball]

everything looks good, other than (a quality build) if you are getting a warrenty that is always nice, you might be able to call them and find out what mem they are using. Im goin to take a stab at it and say "Corsair Value Series"...(just a guess). IMO custom build yourself is better (if you know what you are doing), but in reference to your question if saving saving $100 doesnt mean much to you and you want the ease of someone else building it and they give you some sort of warrenty then sure why not. On the other hand you might feel that the computer is more "yours" if you build it yourself, as I did!

P.S. You could take the $100 savings and upgrade the vid...thats what I would do!!!

Best,

3Ball

Antec NeoHE 550w PS
Gigabyte GA-K8N Pro
AMD Athlon 3700+ Sandy - 2.28ghz - "Arctic Freezer 64"
2gb (2x1gb) Patriot Performance Memory (2.5-3-3-5) 415mhz
ATI Original X1900XTX
(2x120gb WD SATA HD's) - Raid 0
Mobo limiting OC!!!

 

[nobly]

If you ask, they'd probably be willing to put in the custom parts that you want...

I'd definitely find out what brand of PSU they are including though. Don't get some crappy brand, PSU's are important to your computer's health and stability.

 

[shadowduck]

I made a couple changes and think this might be a better system for you. All prices are from Newegg.

Asus A8N-E Motherboard
Athlon64 3200+
Patriot Signature Series 1GB (2 x 512MB) RAM $66($140 for 2GB of RAM not a bad upgrade if you can budget it)
160GB WD SATA II hard drive
256MB 7800GT eVGA
DVD burner
Antec LifeStyle SONATA II Piano Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case w/ 450W PSU
Logitech G5 gaming mouse + Logitech Keyboard
XP Pro OEM (Home edition is awful)

$1092.00
Basically the same price as the Velocity Micro system with a superior video card in the 7800, XP Pro instead of home, and a namebrand PSU.

 

[NumenorLord]

I'd definitely go for the 7900 GT. It'll last longer than the 7800 GT, and it barely costs any more. However, if you can afford yet another $50 or so, get the 3700+ (isn't that 2.2 GHz with 1 mb of L2 cache?)

 

[KMBaron]

Homebuilt is the best way to go for me. You get exactly what you want. But if the end result for you is good enough then it might be a wash either way. Also buying from a company gives you only one real bonus, a warrenty. If you screw it up you pay the price on homebuilt.

 

[MJAnderson]

Thanks for all the replies. I was originally looking at the 3200+ and the 7800GT card, but I don't play FPS that much --- mostly WoW, Civ4 and GalCiv4 --- so I thought the 7600GS would be fine, although not ideal.

Budget isn't really an issue but I hate paying for things I won't use anyway. I'll be buying this weekend from Newegg...thanks again.

 

[gambit6259]

Build your own only if you are looking for the kind of experience you gain from doing it. I built my first computer 5 years ago and never looked back.

 

[Czarles]

I built my computer three years ago with 450 dollars (didn' buy a case but ordered a cheap power supply that has worked fine, but a month ago the fan's bearings went kaput... Simply replaced it.) Would have cost me 700 for a compareable system from an online vendor.....

 

[g-paw]

Have to agree that it's better to build. First, most support sucks. Building will give you the knowledge and confidence to do you own upgrades and you'll have the full waranty for all the parts. Also, you won't get a bunch of junk programs and spamware that comes with most prebuilt systems. How many AOL icons do you need on your desktop?